Today I Learned

Charlie Chaplin, in The Great Dictator, 1940, via Wikimedia Commons Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about fascism. While I already had a fair degree of familiarity and understanding of the big picture, I’ve been picking up (and often blogging about) items which are new to me. Predictably, most are disturbing, but I occasionally come across something wonderful. Charlie Chaplin  was an immensely influential figure in the history of cinema, and his “Tramp” character has been an

The School of Athens. Print by Giorgio Ghisi, of painting by Raphael, via Wikimedia Commons What most people call “debate” really is not. I found the Wikipedia article quite amusing. My favourite bit was where it says: “...debates emphasize logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeal to an audience.” I guess one out of three isn’t bad? Even so-called “formal” debate, where there are rules, judges, and guidelines for acceptable conduct, are more about competit

Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, Mist (2007) Sometimes, it’s hard to see what is true, when everything is shrouded in fog. Fog? You...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, via Wikimedia Commons Am I being too harsh in what I say about Robert F Kennedy Jr ? I’ve mentioned him several...

Louis Raemaekers – To your health, civilization, 1916 The subversion of expectations is an interesting tool, used by artists of all...

Karunakar Rayker, CC BY 2.0 < https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 >, via Wikimedia Commons Seashells  are really quite amazing,...

Tux, the Linux Mascot, via Wikipedia This is Tux . He is a penguin. He’s also the official mascot of the Linux kernel , which is the...

Hitler’s “Memorandum Authorizing Involuntary Euthanasia”, 1-Sep-1939, via Wikipedia World War II is generally considered to have begun...

Bring out your dead! Via YouTube In the classic scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail , Eric Idle is moving down the road with a...